When Zach Parise signed with the Islanders last summer, he spoke about a photo in his family’s basement. The frame of his father J.P.’s series-winning overtime goal in the decisive Game 3 of the 1975 preliminary round against the Rangers, the first playoff-series victory in Islanders franchise history, hung in the Parise household “for the longest time,” Zach said — and his father’s impact on the franchise had played into his decision to come.
At 37, and following a buyout in Minnesota, Parise wanted to be on Long Island. That was in part because of his father, in part to play under general manager Lou Lamoriello again and in part to give himself a chance to win the Stanley Cup.
“They’ve already established themselves as one of the best teams in the league, making it to the conference finals the last couple of years” Parise said in September. “You just want to be a piece of the puzzle.”
Now, in mid-February, it’s clear that the puzzle pieces haven’t fit together. Ahead of the Islanders’ game against the Bruins on Thursday, Parise sat in front of a Zoom camera and fielded a question about why the season had gone so differently than he anticipated when signing.
“You can never predict what’s gonna happen,” Parise said. “Take information you have and make a decision.”
Instead of contending for the Cup, the Islanders are anchored to the bottom half of the Metropolitan Division, all but officially out of playoff contention. Instead of thinking about getting his first ring on Long Island, Parise is faced with the possibility of being moved ahead of next month’s trade deadline.
He said all the right things Thursday, about still retaining confidence that the team can turn things around, about the group having shown flashes of what it can be, about his focus being on the Islanders.
But, as well as anyone else, Parise knows the reality that this team faces.
“Obviously it’s tough,” Ryan Pulock said when asked about the group’s morale. “Guys know what’s at stake and they know we have to get better. We need to find our game right now to give us a chance.”
“I think as individuals, we all know that there’s more that we can bring to the table,” Parise said. “As a group, we know there’s more.”
Parise would like to see the Islanders play as a five-man unit more often, a quality he said showed during their better stretches on the team’s recent road trip. It hasn’t shown up consistently enough to win games, though — the Islanders returned home having won just one of four in Canada and Buffalo, their hopes of making something out of this season dwindling by the day.
“D-Zone, neutral zone, we cover for each other if there’s a mistake and offensively, we play as a five-man group,” Parise said. “That starts with coming out of the zone as a group of five. And I think when we’re playing well, to me that’s what we’re doing really well. We’re great as a five-man group defensively and offensively, everyone’s getting involved. And that puts a lot of stress on the other team.”
Those occasions, though, have been far too rare. The Islanders are 29th in scoring per game, accounting for much of their issues as a team.
At this stage of the season, it might be too late for any answer they could come up with to make a material impact. And perhaps the most revealing thing Parise said Thursday came when he was asked why the team hadn’t yet found any consistency.
“That’s a great question,” he said. “And I think we’re all in search of that answer.”